SOUTHERN STAGE NOTES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1381, 12 October 1916, Page 34

SOUTHERN STAGE NOTES.

(By

“Lorgnette.”)

WELLINGTON, October 10.

After a highly successful career as concert managers, during which they have handled some of the world’s best;known artists, Messrs. J. and N. Tait have auspiciously begun their new career as theatrical entrepreneurs with the comedy “Peg o’ My Heart,” which opened a Dominion tour at the Grand Opera House this evening. “Peg o’ My Heart” is truly a delicate dramatic creation, being something genuinely lovable and charming, and it is easy to understand that the play has enjoyed a run of over two years in both London and New York, and still cannot finish its season in either city. At the start the audience is in-

troduced to an entirely unpleasant and ultra-snobbish family circle, consisting of Mrs. Chichester, of her discontented daughter Ethel, who is engaged in an intrigue with Christopher Brent, a married man, and of Alaric, a more or less amiable nincompoop, to whom work of any description is a mystery. Finding that a bank failure has ruined them, the Chichesters are faced with the prospect of having to “do something” to keep the wolf from the door. To them comes Peg

O’Connell, from New York. It appears that Peg’s rich uncle has decreed in his will that if she will learn “to be a lady” in England she shall receive £5OOO a year when she comes of age, while for instructing her in her new role Mrs. Chichester is to receive £lOOO a year. Peg is plainly “impossible,” but after all £lOOO a year is a consideration, so she accepts the proposition. Miss Sara Allgood, as Peg, captivated the large audience from her first entrance, and scored a wonderful and instantaneous success. The brogue in her voice is just the thing to win the affections of any audience. Miss Doris Gilham acted well in the unsympathetic part of the snobbish and purse-proud Mrs. Chichester, whilst Miss Beatrice Yaldwyn gave a good rendering of the part of Ethel Chichester, the runaway who repented in time. Mr. Gerald Henson looked distinguished as Jerry, and made an honest and cheery lover. Mr. Cecil Brooking gives a very fine interpretation of the part of Alaric Chichester, a well-bred, loquacious, self-important “Johnny.” Mr. James Gelderd makes the most of the part of Christopher Brent. Mr. Ernest Ruston, as the lawyer, Mr. Thomas Sidney, as Jarvis, the butler, and Miss Betty Macmillan as the maid give the company efficient support. On Monday, the 23rd inst. (Labour Day), J. C. Williamson, Ltd., will inaugurate a twelve nights’ seaso. of American farce-comedy at the Grand Opera House, during which term four of the greatest laughter-makers the world has ever produced will be staged. They are “It Pays to Advertise,” “Twin Beds,” “The Boomerang,” and “A Full House.” They will also serve to introduce two of America’s most celebrated comedy performers in Mr. Hale Hamilton and Miss Myrtle Tannehill. The first production will be “It Pays to Advertise,” the story of which centres round the movement of rivals in the soap industry in New York, where a famous soapmaker’s son, who is not a lover of work, is

induced to launch out in business by a clever trap set for him by his father and his typiste, but, unlike his dad, he is a sound believer in advertising. He eventually induces his “stern parent” to come to his way of thinking, with the result that father and son come together, as one trust, in their famous article, No. 13 soap. Mr. Hamilton plays the part of a publicity agent, while Miss Tannehill appears as the typiste.